Like, he's totally a Tween, for reals!

Ethan at the beginning of June had a birthday. He turned 11! I don't think i really wrapped my brain around it for the first week. Now that he's 11 and so close to 12 and all that follows that i feel just a tad older myself. Ethan has told me a few times he's a pre-teenager or an early teenager and i tell him no you're 11, and you're not a teenager until you are 13. We don't need to rush this anymore than it already feels. What is scary is that i totally remember 11, vividly. So at this point i could be scarring him. We try not to, but being a parent is hard, and being the oldest he gets to be the guinea pig (and i suddenly have a little more sympathy for the oldest children in all families). The time has flown by. As is tradition we pulled out the scrapbook of the day of their birth and reminisce. I looked at some of the pictures and it just seems impossible that the little baby that i was soooo overjoyed to have out of my belly is now 11. He still smiles the same, he still has boundless energy, still fights sleeping each night, and we can still see the gears turning in his head. The reasons we love Ethan:
-his spongyness (he absorbs all information)
-his raw talent that is focused and channeled into great accomplishments
-self determination (he is very driven all on his own)
-the way he loves music and creating his own songs
-he is a good big brother and is always willing to play whatever game Ryan is begging for. (Ryan told me the other day that he liked being by Ethan--i thought that was sweet).
-he is a great helper around the house (like the jobs are actually done to a level that i don't feel like i have to go back and re-do or touch up on) he's always been a great helper but it's hit a new level.
-I love that he has no fear of being up in front of an audience
I do not question that Ethan will do many great things. (and no I'm not in the least bit biased). He is a wonderful boy, and we are very happy he is a part of our family.

WE LOVE YOU ETHAN!

still here

After taking a small break from the electronic world for the more simple life of a cardboard box we decided we'd join the fast lane once again. Oh who am i kidding, we have been in the fast lane with the cardboard box, and we live to tell the tale. We are finally settled enough (i guess) that we felt it was about time to get a post on the blog.
We are feeling more and more settled and the house is feeling more and more like home. The boys have over the last few days as we've pulled away said "mom, i really like our home." That to me is a big step to feeling more at home here. The fact that the boys are feeling good here makes the move less painful. Since the weather has finally decided to be good and summer like they have had the chance to meet some neighbors and make some friends. They are outside lots riding bikes and scooters, playing in the yard, catching grasshoppers, and just loving the summer. They have been real troopers over this last month. Blake and I have been working on getting our home ready for the parade, all our stuff packed, and getting mom and dads home in order for their return. Needless to say they have had to adjust to many long filled days. I am so grateful they have been so flexible. Home is defiantly where the heart is. And since i just found the box that i had packed my heart in i guess we can call this home. (Visitors are always welcome!)

Hey, that's my birthday!

Today as Ryan and Sam were sitting at the table eating their lunch we had a conversation that went like this.

Ryan: Mom, what day did i come out of your tummy?

Mom: Dec. 10th

Ryan: Hey, that's my birthday!

Mom: Yep, that's why it's called your birthday.

Sam: Ryan did you know you were supposed to be born on Jesus' birthday? But mom didn't want that. So you would have been pretty lucky to have the same birthday as Christ.

Ryan: Dec. 10th was when i was a baby, and i wasn't two.

Mom: Nope not on the day you came out of my tummy. (whew)

Ryan: And you called me Ryan, but my name is Ryan.

Sam: Was it hard to name us?

Mom: No, i knew what we were going to call you both as we got close to the day you were born.

Sam: So how did you know that?

Mom: Well i had a dream that i knew Ryan's name was Ryan.

Sam: So you had a vision?!

Mom: No, i just knew that it felt right that his name was Ryan. And I knew i wanted to name you Sam.

Several parts of this conversation just made me smile. I wish there was a recorder close by to record some of these conversations, cause I'm not always very good at writing them down. Who knows maybe in heaven we can sit and watch the videos of our life and smile again at the things our kids said.

Ever have one of those days?

Have you ever had one of those days where you just worry what can happen next? Over the last week or so it has felt like that..... a lot! Not to say that there haven't been a lot of good things to balance things out and really i feel quite blessed, but it just seems that there can't be a day that isn't full of surprises! Today's surprise was this:

Ryan had an abscess on his tooth, that we only noticed yesterday evening. Needless to say the plans that were in order for the day changed the moment we saw his tooth last night. So our morning started with our blood being taken (only after a few extra pokes cause my veins wouldn't cooperate) for our life insurance to racing to the dentist office to have Ryan's teeth checked. Sure enough the tooth had been infected and had some major black stuff on the x-ray. Lucky kid. He had to have a pulpotomy (a baby root canal). But this little guy smiled through it. I took this picture with my phone and showed him and he thought it was funny to see the "elephant nose." I asked him if he looked like a teenage mutant ninja turtle--he said yeah. He was so good and didn't even flinch once. I was holding his hands just to be sure he didn't try to grab things but also to be right there for him. He would just smile and watch the movie they turned on for him. What a good guy! All is well tonight, and i can't wait to see what will happen tomorrow.

Dance dance baby!

Can you see ethan in the photo above? he's the one waving.

Sam is the one in the light blue in the middle of the photo below. (this is the proof i have that he did in fact dance at this years festival.)

Today was the boys school dance festival. At the end of the school year each class does a dance that they have learned. When i was a kid it was the mayflower and the Mexican hat dance, ah the memories. These days they do it to more modern music and the kids love it. You can see it in all their faces. There are even some that will probably deny it but they enjoy it. Last years dance festival Sam was one of the kids in the back only kind of doing the dance. He was too busy playing with the grass and the butterflies to be dancing. We got it on video. This year Sam was a dancing it up with the rest of his class. I do have to say i was proud. Proud that he was participating and proud that he has such awesome moves. I only have still shots of the dance at this point, but maybe in the future I'll get the video from my friend and post it. Ethan's class did some fun stuff and he being the performer he is enjoyed it greatly. I bet if anyone wanted a rerun we could have the boys do their thing, if not in years to come we will sit and watch the videos and have a good hardy laugh at how the boys have changed. (remember Darin's and Nathan's dance? It's electric! hehehe)

where the grass is green!!!

I will fully admit that one of the biggest perks (in my mind) of having our home part of the parade of homes is that we have to have some of the landscaping done. Part of our agreement when we signed on for it was that we'd do some of the work and have a smaller budget for landscaping (thus meaning more of it had to come directly out of our pocket--even though it all comes out of our pocket in the end). Today we got sod! Blake, as mentioned in the previous post, did a lot of rock shoveling over the weekend to help with some of it. And today when we got out there the sod drove up so i left him there with the crew and i went and got the boys from school took them to piano and then headed back out. They had just finished laying the sod and were running the sprinklers on it as we pulled up. Now that the part that HAS to be done for the parade is done they are running sprinklers for the back and they will hydro seed the back yard too. It was a small amount more to have it done that way, but it will be really nice to have it all done. Not to say it's going to be done to what I'd say as complete, but at least we will have grass and sprinklers and future projects to dream up. Oh and as a side note. just as we pulled up i jumped out to go give a friend a tour of the house as the boys were putting their books and games away and i left them to get out of the car on their own. After the tour and as we got out side the boys told me they had seen a snake. Chills ran down my spine as they told me that as Sam was getting out of the car he saw a snake about 3 feet away from the car on the curb of the driveway. EEEEEKKK!!!! Sam (who didn't want to move out to saratoga because there were snakes) then got back into the car really slowly and quietly. Then Sam turned to Ethan and Ryan that were still there in the car and whispered to them about it (so he wouldn't scare the snake). A little bit later when Blake came out of the house, there Sam was motioning from the car window for him to see the snake. Luckily it wasn't a rattle snake, but either way it was a big snake! Sheesh. what kind of welcome was that?

I asked Blake if there was a spray for snakes, he said yeah a 12 gage shotgun spray. I guess I'm gonna have to get me a gun.

Lots of Stuff

I have decided that I just plain don't understand the decorator mind. What I would see as ugly and weird is artistic and unique. What I would see as loud and obnoxious is bold and making a statement. What a decorator thinks about or puts into a home is beyond me and yet it somehow works.

The house is now staged with a whole bunch of furniture we could never afford and things I would have never chose to put in our house but it gave Lori one or two ideas of what she would like to do and me ideas on how furniture will fit in the space we have.

This is the back living room with the fireplace. As you can see, I will likely required to buy a flat panel high definition TV at some point...only because of space not alterior motives. What else would I put over the fire place? A family portate? I think not.

The front room will have a baby grand placed in it before the show, I think that will look very nice. The topiary you see on the little table there is only $200 if anyone wants they can send me the money and I will keep it for you until I can get it for you.

I love the plant shelf by the stairs and the large clock on the way up the stairs is great. We will be likely finishing the large clock we have in the front room to look at little more antiqued like the one seen here.

The master bedroom is closest of all the rooms in the house to what I would like to do.

Lastly, I shoveled 9 tons of rock. And this is what it looks like as I am trying to xeriscape the west side of our house. The crushed rock has an average of 2-3 inch rock size. Shoveling dirt or pea gravel would have been easy, it is hard to scoup this rock. So far it has taken me 7 hours of shoveling and we are almost done. I actually don't feel sore but my poor secretary soft hands are blistered and in pain. When the hardest substance I usually touch is a key pad and cut grass, this didn't come as too much of a surprise. Only 7 days to go and the parade will be here.